Proposal Details – What to Include

Research scientists who would like to apply for time on the Macromolecular Crystallography beamlines (formerly known as the Protein Crystallography beamlines) should refer to the User Office webpages for the most current information and downloads associated with this beamline.

Users or principal investigators who are new to the proposal process should ensure they carefully read all of the information on the User Office website before they download and complete the beamtime proposal forms. Note that any proposal document for time on the Macromolecular Crystallography beamlines must be accompanied by the ‘Protein Crystallography Additional Experiment Information’ form (also available on the User Office website).

Any user group with questions regarding the technical capabilities of the beamline, or the suitability of the beamline for the analysis of their samples, should feel free to contact the Principal Beamline Scientist (contact details appear on the Staff webpage for this beamline). For further information on the Beamtime Proposal process, please contact the User Office directly.

HEAVY ATOMS

If users intend to analyse samples incorporating heavy atoms, they MUST be listed on the EAF (with corresponding MSDSs), otherwise they will not be allowed into the Synchrotron facility. Please refer to the User Office webpages for details regarding EAFs (Experiment Authorisation Forms).

BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL SAFETY

If users have any questions about the scope of samples permitted into the Synchrotron facility, plus any sample preparation work they intend to conduct in the Biochemistry Lab, they should talk to the beamline support staff prior to completing their experiment proposal. The Biochemistry Lab is a PC1 laboratory. There will be no live organisms, GMO etcetera allowed at any time.

NEW! The Biochemistry Lab now has a PC2 laboratory – potential users of this lab should refer to the information on the Samples / Preparation Facilities webpage for this beamline.

Any chemical/s users bring onsite with them must be accompanied by MSDSs attached to their ESA. Risk Assessments must be performed before starting any experimental work involving hazardous chemicals (as designated on the MSDS).

Beamline-Specific Administrative Procedures

BEAMLINE-SPECIFIC INDUCTION

It is a requirement of the Synchrotron facility that all users have an up-to-date OH&S / Radiation Safety (GERT) training record, which can be confirmed via the User Office once beamtime has been allocated.

In addition, the Macromolecular Crystallography Beamlines also strictly require new users to attend an on-site beamline-specific induction prior to entering the user cabins or beamline hutches. This rule is strictly enforced as there are radiation and safety procedures inherent in the operation of the beamline endstation and data collection process.

First-time operators of the remote access end-station software and robot should contact the Macromolecular Crystallography Principal Scientist (or make contact via the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it) to make induction arrangements.

When can I do my beamline-specific induction?

Inductions for all new users must be undertaken in the first shift of their allocated beamtime (between 8am – 4pm) by the Synchrotron staff member working that shift. New users are encouraged to make contact prior to arrival (via the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it), stating their arrival time on site so that the staff member can be on the lookout. Staff contact details will also be posted on the whiteboard situated on the exterior wall of the user cabin and users are encouraged to use these numbers as their first point of contact whenever they require assistance.

New users who fail to attend a beamline-specific induction during the first shift (regardless of whether they have been assigned a night-shift by their team leader) will not be permitted to enter the user cabin or hutch area for the remainder of the experiment.

REMOTE ACCESS ARRANGEMENTS

In order to collect data via remote access, users must make remote access arrangements prior to their beamtime and find out who their designated support staff member/s will be.

Remote access to Blu-Ice is only granted to AUTHORISED users within their scheduled beamtime, and so is considered ‘experiment-specific’. Hence, users must request the resources, logins and passwords necessary to operate the Blu-Ice user interface for every scheduled beamtime event. Note that data collected throughout a scheduled beamtime can still be accessed via the BOSS gateway at a later date without the need to re-enter the Blu-Ice interface.

Once remote access arrangements have been made, Principal Investigators are encouraged to make contact via the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it, stating all users’ shift times and contact phone number/s so that the Synchrotron support staff can communicate effectively any on-site issues without delay.

First-time remote access users who wish to verify that the NX Client operates successfully on their computer prior to the allocated beamtime should contact the Macromolecular Crystallography team via the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The team will endeavour to arrange time for a brief practice run (during normal office hours) when the beamline is free of other research teams.

IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that all remote access users become familiar with the information on the operation of Blu-Ice that is detailed in the Remote Access Manual and the Beamline Users Manual (Blu-Ice section). Both documents can be downloaded from the Resources webpage for this beamline.

Users whose shift/s straddle beam injection times should be competent in re-opening shutters once the injection operation is complete. For a run-through of what to expect, and how to re-open shutters, users should ensure they contact their beamline support staff member during the first shift (8am – 4pm) as injection operations usually occur outside of office hours.

VARIABLE ENERGY EXPERIMENTS

Users should note that if they plan to use a different energy than our standard operating energy
(12658.928 eV, 0.97939Å), then it will be changed at the beginning of the scheduled beamtime and the user support staff member on shift will optimise the beam flux and focus. Users are encouraged to contact the user support team to discuss plans for multiple-energy experiments.